


Ascension

by LittleRaven



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s03e16 Altar of Mortis, Gen, Mortis (Star Wars), The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-27 02:55:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20753171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/pseuds/LittleRaven
Summary: She has a name. She knows it is true.





	Ascension

**Author's Note:**

  * For [outruntheavalanche](https://archiveofourown.org/users/outruntheavalanche/gifts).

She has a name. She knows it is true. It is the thing she has coalesced around; stardust kept together. 

But when he calls it, meaning to bring her back, she cannot be tied to it. Ahsoka breathes, and it’s like the first time all over again, the time she can’t remember but knows in the cells of what was once only a body. There’s life all around, and inside, humming. When Anakin—he brings the name with him—touches her it’s bright, pulsing harder than the nearest star. She wonders if that is how he feels all the time; he can touch the Force like no other. She has heard this, could see it, and is now more conscious of the truth than ever. 

Can he see her in return? His grip is tight. He always clings to the body, Ahsoka remembers. He doesn’t look to what’s beyond, despite all that he is made of. She permits him the touch. 

He will have to learn at his own pace, to see how he has put a star in her body, much like his own. They have all the time during which the universe can last, though he is not aware of it yet, not awake to the potential of the furnace inside him. 

She closes the eyes of the body which had once contained her, and sees beyond. There is someone else here. She recognizes him, though he has no name. He needs none. 

He needs so much else. To leave, to take his life into his own hands. To take something she had once been. All the things he has already had, if he would see it. Like the Anakin who has brought her to this, it is in his nature to desire rather than perceive. 

Ahsoka follows the sight of him, sliding through the Force, leaving Anakin to grasp at air. She couldn’t have done that before, she realizes. Now she understands he can wait, that he won’t disappear. She turns back to brush what was once only a hand over his shoulder. 

The person she seeks stands in a crypt, over a body she knows. Kin and not kin. He knows her too. He cries out. 

This time, he does not kill her. She welcomes him into her arms; as he honored what she had once been, she will honor him. 

When Anakin, bound to his name and hers, kills him, she buries him beside the beloved body, closes his eyes. 

“Ahsoka, wake up.” 

Compassion floods her. She looks up at him, the soul trapped in the limits of his body. He has been a mentor, and he will find the transition rough. 

“You’re not yourself.” He touches her shoulder, squeezes as if it will let him in to see her again. She will show him how he already does. “I know you’re still here.”

“I was.” She lets the Force surge through her fingers as she sets them over his own, through the bond he could only feel with his body. 

“You are,” he tells her, with the vehemence of knowing he will make a thing so. 

“I still am.” She lets him have that. It is, after all, true as well. He can feel it’s not the whole of it; he will continue to reduce what has happened to what he hopes, what he understands, what he needs. As he once took her in, held her hand, so would she, with her newfound patience. 

“Good.” He watches her carefully.

Her skin stretches into a smile, and though he is not satisfied, he offers no further argument as he guides her back to Obi-Wan and the ship. He will have her looked over, she is certain. She will pass every test, with a body more in tune with the Force they all followed than any besides his own. 

She will teach him, and free at last, he will understand.


End file.
